Responding to Racial Microaggressions: Resilience Among Black Undergraduate Students

Abstract:

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how Black undergraduates demonstrate resilience in response to experiencing racial microaggressions. Given that racially hostile and unwelcoming campus environments persist and that some response strategies have been associated with mitigating the effects of microaggressions, there is a need to further explicate how Black students resiliently respond to microaggressive environments that assail their beingness. We used resilience theory as a conceptual framework to uncover positive adaptations that contributed to Black undergraduate students’ resilience. Focus group interviews were conducted with 17 Black undergraduates at a public research university in the Midwest. Findings indicated that students engaged in five positive adaptations that contributed to their resilience: (a) making sense of racial microaggressions, (b) increasing awareness of racism and racial microaggressions, (c) focusing on academics, (d) developing assertiveness, and (e) resisting cultural discontinuity. We offer recommendations for supporting Black undergraduates’ resilience and systematically confronting racism and racial microaggressions.